Governors Forum shows wish for warm relations

Lexington, a major city in Kentucky, which is known as the Bluegrass State, is less than 1,000 kilometers from the White House and had almost the same weather on Thursday. But a China-US Governors Forum being held in the city had an atmosphere that was quite different from that in Washington.

While the world's top two economies are embroiled in a protracted trade spat, with the White House escalating tariffs and Beijing retaliating, governors and diplomats seemed unscathed by the impasse, vowing to ramp up exchanges and cooperation at the subnational level, which they said is critical to developing and defining China-US relations.

Speaking at the Fifth China-US Governors Forum, Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, said that in Kentucky and many other states, he always finds true friendship, not groundless suspicions; people focus on cooperation, not confrontation, and they share hopes for greater engagement, not so-called decoupling or estrangement.